This invention relates to a chain stitching machine, especially a stitched goods machine, equipped with sliding needles adjustable back and forth and closing elements for closing the hooks of the sliding needles, a knock-off comb arranged vertically to the latter, an upper and a lower bracing means, both provided parallel to the knock-off comb, as well as with means for guiding the warp elements up to the stitch formation zone and a track provided with perforation needles.
A stitched goods machine of the mentioned type with means for guiding warp elements up to a stitch formation zone in which the machine is adapted to prepare a track on a fleece, is already known. Herein, the warp elements are placed on the left side of the fleece and affixed to the fleece by means of connecting thread (European Patent application No. 0 018 766).
According to one example of an embodiment of the machine presented in the previously mentioned patent application, the guiding of the warp elements occurs in the intermediate zone between the knock-off comb and bracing means on the left side of the fleece facing the bracing means. The bracing means are represented as two tracks parallel to the knock-off comb, being placed apart from each other and over each other. The sliding needles move inside the distance between the tracks when they are driven forward.
The previously known constructions of the stitch formation zone of stitched goods machines do not make it possible to arrange the last guiding elements of the warp elements very near to the center of the stitch formation zone in the intermediate zone between the knock-off comb and the bracing means.
The reasons for this are the acute risk of possible damage to the structure of the fleece through contact with the guiding means and extreme hampering of the operating personnel to draw the warp elements through the last guiding means. In this respect the known machine does not constitute an exception. The necessity to accommodate the means for guiding the warp elements at a relatively large distance from the center of the stitch formation zone results in considerably imprecise guiding of the warp elements immediately over the sliding needles. This, in turn, very often leads to arbitrary positions of the warp elements on the fleece which, in most cases, are undesirable.
Another variant of the machine according to the above European patent application is the guiding of the warp elements in such a way that the same extend towards the center of the stitch formation zone in front of the upper bracing means. For this purpose, a means for guiding the warp elements has been arranged directly above the sliding needles in front of the upper bracing means, said means being formed as a track with openings recessed diagonally in relation to the longitudinal axis of the warp elements, in which such openings face the row of sliding needles in an approximately perpendicular direction. This track does not comprise any bracing pins or the like on which the warp elements could be braced against the stress exerted by the sliding needles to push the warp elements forward from the center of the stitch formation area. Especially in warp elements whose thickness or width is greater than the distance between two adjacent sliding needles, the sliding needles will pierce into the warp elements, in an attempt to involve them in their forward movement, which often occurs. The consequences are disturbances in the manufacturing process of textile goods and quality-lowering deviations in the structure of the latter.
This invention aims at remedying the above mentioned flaws and at making the manufacture of textile goods having warp elements disturbance-free to a very large extent, and wherein the warp elements have an approximately exact position on a base material, such as, for instance, a fleece.
The invention has for its main object the provision of a chain stitching machine, especially a machine for stitched goods, in which the warp elements are located in the center of the stitch formation zone behind the bracing means and in front of the base material, being guided directly over the sliding or reciprocating needles.